The BEME Collaboration

The Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) Collaboration (Harden et al., 1999) is an international group of individuals, universities and professional organisations committed to the development of evidence informed education in the medical and health professions through:

the dissemination of information which allows teachers and stakeholders in the medical and health professions to make decisions on the basis of the best evidence available;

the production of reviews which present the best available evidence and meet the needs of the user; and

the creation of a culture of best evidence education amongst individuals, institutions and national bodies.

BEME's goal is to provide and to make available the latest findings from scientifically-grounded educational research. This will enable teachers and administrators to make informed decisions about the kinds of evidence-based education initiatives that boost learner performance on cognitive and clinical measures.

BEME rejects the legacy of medical education in which decisions have been made based on pseudoscience, anecdotes, and flawed comparison groups rather than empirical evidence. The BEME approach contends that in no other scientific field are personal experiences relied on to make policy choices, and in no other field is the research base so limited.